World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth gets a new update!

Patch 8.1 for the game World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth uses staggered content update schedule

December 11th - Introduction of Darkshore Warfront: Battle for Darkshore, new Tyrande story questline, Heritage armors for Blood Elves and Dwarves, Dungeon for Pets, Class Changes, Island Expedition updates, stages 1 to 3 of new War Campaign

January 22nd - Normal and Heroic difficulties for Battle of Dazar’Alor raid, the start of Season 2 PVP, Item level increase, stage 4 of War Campaign

Mythic difficulty for Battle of Dazar’Alor raid, stage 5 of War Campaign

The Battle for Lordaeron summary

The Battle for Lordaeron is pre-Battle for Azeroth scenario which acts as an introduction to events taking place in the expansion mentioned above. The scenario itself is required to access features of Battle for Azeroth. However, the scenario is mandatory for only the first character that completes it, next ones can simply skip it.

The Battle of Lordaeron occurs after the Horde attack on Teldrassil. It is followed up by Alliance forces storming the Lordaeron in order to take control of it.

The aftermath of the Battle of Lordaeron leaves Undercity uninhabitable because of large quantities of blight surrounding the area.

Here are two videos concluding this scenario for both Allliance and Horde.

Story Questlines

Varok Saurfang story questline expanded

“We will continue learning more about the story of Varok Saurfang, which we last saw broken in prison in Stormwind, unwilling to return to Sylvanas Windrunner’s Horde.”

Tyrande Whisperwind and Malfurion Stormrage storylines expanded

“We will have more development on the stories of Tyrande Whisperwind and Malfurion Stormrage, learning more about their emotions after the Burning of Teldrassil and what comes next for their tales.”

Vol’jin storyline expanded

“The next part of Vol'jin's story covers Talanji trying to discover why Vol'jin

appointed Sylvanas as the next Warchief. There are no clear answers at the end of her investigation, but dark implications.

This questline takes place after the Zuldazar raid, as Baine is horrified by Sylvanas' actions.”

Warfront: Battle for Darkshore

First let's take a closer look on newest Warfront titled Battle For Darkshore, and what awaits brave warriors who decide to battle through forests and shores of north-east Kalimdor.

Second, in terms of added Warfronts, Darkshore initially starts in the hands of The Forsaken and The Horde.

Alliance players willing to participate in Warfront will have to meet two requirements, first, they have to be max level (which is 120) and then complete the opening story with Tyrande and night elves. Here’s interesting cinematic where we can see the different side of Night Elves:

After completing these tasks they will be eligible to queue for the Warfront.

The Warfront itself consists of three stages: contribute, siege and patrol.

Contribute phase focuses on players gathering and bringing materials to designated NPCs which are located in Dazar'Alor for Horde and Boralus for Alliance. This phase ends when a threshold for resources is met. Resource gathering takes roughly a week usually.

Next phase is Siege, lasting roughly 30 minutes, where players join a 40-man group and are transported to an instance which looks similar to open world Darkshore region, except now it's populated with special NPCs and objectives required to complete the siege.

Your main objective as Horde player is reclaiming Darkshore after losing it to the Alliance. Alliance players have a similar goal which is taking Darkshore for themselves. For a more in-depth look, this short clips presents the siege from Horde perspective.

Patrol is the last of the stages and is available only if your faction successfully conquered the region. Players from the faction currently controlling Darkshore will be able to access a new faction-specific World Boss, rare creatures, and acquire new gear including new pets and mounts.

There are also brand new World Quests available for those still starving for new content.

Mount list available from Darkshore Warfront:

Black Paw

Kaldorei Nightsaber

Ashenvale Chimaera

Frightened Kodo

Captured Umbar Nightsaber

Sandy Nightsaber

You can receive them by killing various mobs in the Warfront.

Changes to Leveling System

In terms of leveling system, experience required for each level has been substantially reduced.

From level 20 to 110 the reduction is between 2.50% and 40% for a level, with levels 59 - 65 getting the highest reduction of 40%. Levels 111 - 120 get a much less significant reduction of 0.05 %, with level 114 being drop off point where it drops to 0.04% and later 0.03%.

As far as things related to leveling go, you might be interested in these new trinkets added in this year’s last patch:

New Heritage gear sets

Next on the list are Heritage Armors, Blood Elf and Dwarven ones, players with maximum level who play as either allied races will be able to get transmog set unique to their race.

In order to obtain a new set, the player has to be Exalted with their home-city (Ironforge for Dwarves and Silvermoon for Blood Elves) and finish new quest line associated with armor. Questline can be started by visiting the embassy in Orgrimmar (Horde players) or Stormwind (Alliance players). Below are images of the new set.

Bulwark of the Mountain King (transmog set)

Blood Elf Heritage Armor (based on Spellbreaker armor)

Faction Assaults

Level 110 players and above will get to experience Faction Assaults in Zandalar and Kul Tiras. However, they have to have unlocked World Quests on their account and start the War Campaign.

Faction Assaults will switch between Kul Tiras and Zandalar, offering players a chance to either help their faction attack or defend by completing various World Quests. If players want to check when the next Faction Assault is taking place, they have to open their world map, there a Horde or Alliance symbol shows the which side is currently invading.

You can also see the timer counting down in the upper middle section of the map. When it reaches 0, Assault ends.

Two new Island Expeditions

Final thing featured in our list is two entirely new Islands Expeditions called Heavenswood and Jorundall.

For players not familiar with what Island Expedition is: they are three player instances where you can either queue alone and be assigned with other players seeking adventures or join as full group, just like when joining a dungeon, from there you can choose if you want to play on Normal, Heroic or Mythic difficulties or face other players in separate PvP category.

On the isles themselves, your goal is to obtain as much Azurite as possible, either by killing monsters, mining special nodes or finding treasure chests that appear on the map.

Below is the picture of Heavenswood, one of the new islands.

There are some changes to the mechanics of obtaining rewards and completing the islands themselves. Now you don’t have to go out of your way to find and kill special enemies, because rewards for particular islands are given for enemies present on the island, not the ones you kill, thus drastically reducing the time needed for completing island for those that wanted to max out their possible rewards.

Also, the requirements for the weekly quest “Azerite For the Allliance” and “Azerite for The Horde” have been reduced down to 36,000 Azurite.

Azerite Traits

There are many new azerite traits added in Tides of Vengeance. The ones added in Battle For Azeroth initial release were mainly included to test the possibilities for adding new ones and experimenting with them in the future. Traits added in Tides of Vengeance are better and more effective.

Thunderscale Whelpling - "These whelps are frequently captured by the denizens of Jorundall when still young and trainable."

Crimson Octopode - "The crimson species of octopode grows larger and hardier than others, and is capable of sustaining crushing pressure in the depths."

Some of the enemies on the islands wear recolors of old raid sets, in case some of them may interest you here is their list along with pictures of each set.

Faceless (Warlock T13 recolor)

Swarmfury (Warlock T19 recolor)

Frostwind (Mage T12 recolor)

Hydraxian (Priest T12 recolor)

Spider Acolyte (Warlock T12 recolor)

Spiritbough (Druid T12 recolor)

Tranquil Path (Monk T14 recolor)

Miststalker (new armor)

Whirling Dervish (Rogue T11 recolor)

Feralbark (Druid T14 recolor)

Firekin (Modified Druid T11)

Wild Marauder (Hunter T14)

Dragonrider (new armor)

Saurok (Hunter T15)

Mrrglurgll (Hunter T11 recolor)

Headshrinker (Shaman T13 LFR recolor)

Voodoo Stalker (Amani Mail recolor)

Geocrag (Warrior T11 recolor)

Razorfin (Paladin T12 recolor)

Tomb-Keeper (Warrior T15 LFR)

Bloodwake (new armor)

Rattling Bone (Amani Plate recolor)

Twilight Dragon (Warrior T13 recolor)

Legion LFR Solo Queue

Maybe a bit late, but in this update Blizzard added the option to solo queue for Looking For Raid type of the Legion raids. They are accessed by talking Archmage Timear near the Violet Hold in Dalaran.

Class Changes in Patch 8.1 BFA

Below is the list of changes applied to each class segregated by Class.

Death Knight

Blood:

Specialization:

Veteran of the Third War - Stamina increased by 10% (changed from 60%), removed armor increase, specializations changed from Blood to Blood/Frost/Unholy

Bonestorm - A whirl of bone and gore batters nearby enemies, dealing (15.2334% of Attack power) Shadow damage every 1 sec, and healing you for 3% of your maximum health every time it deals damage (up to 15%). Lasts 1 sec per 10 Runic Power spent. (added “up to 15%” condition)

Will of the Necropolis - Damage taken below 30% (reduced from 35%) Health is reduced by 30% (reduced from 35%)

PvP Talents:

Dark Simulacrum - Places a dark ward on an enemy player that persists for 12 sec, triggering when the enemy next spends mana on a spell and allowing the Death Knight to unleash an exact duplicate of that spell.

Heartstop Aura - Decreases the cooldown recovery rate of abilities by 30% (increased from 20%) to all enemies within 8 yards.
Specializations changed from Blood/Frost/Unholy to Blood/Frost

Murderous Intent - You focus the assault on this target,(changed from “Intimidates the target”) increasing their damage taken by 3% for 6 seconds. Each unique player that attacks the target increases the damage taken by an additional 3%, stacking up to 5 times (15%).
Your melee attacks refresh the duration of Focused Assault (changed from “Intimidated”)

(Only cosmetic change of wording in the tooltip to better fit the ability)

Frost:

Specialization:

Breath of Sindragosa - Continuously deal (52% of attack power (reduced from 58%)) * (((Attack power + Offhand attack power) * 2 / 3) / Attack power) Frost damage every 1 second to enemies in a cone in front of you. Deals reduced damage to secondary targets. You will continue breathing until your Runic Power is exhausted or you cancel the effect.

Death Strike's cost is reduced by 10, and its healing is increased by 60%

PvP Talents:

Dead of Winter - After your Remorseless Winter deals damage 5 times to a target, they are Stunned for 4 seconds (new)
Remorseless Winter's cooldown is increased by 25 seconds and its radius is reduced to 5 yards.

Chill Streak - Deals up to 6% (increased from 3%) of the target's total health in Frost damage and reduces their movement speed by 70% for 4 sec.

Chill Streak bounces up to 9 times between closest targets within 6 yards.

(removed) Deathchill - Your death grip automatically applies Chains of Ice free of cost, and when you Chains of Ice target already afflicted by your Chains of Ice you Freeze them, rooting them in place for 4 seconds.

Delirium - A disease that debilitates the targets movement, reducing the cooldown recovery rate of movement enhancing abilities by 25%. Stacks up to 2 times. Lasts for 15 seconds (increased from 8 seconds).

(new) Lichborne - Draw upon unholy and frost energies to become Undead for 10 sec. While undead all damage is reduced by 30% and you are nearly unstoppable becoming immune to Stun, Snare, Fear, and Root effects.
However, during Lichborne you cannot move faster than 50% of normal speed.

Unholy:

Death and Decay - Necrotic Strike now also hits all enemies near the target.

All Will Serve - The Risen Skulker's Skulker Shot deals 5.63% (reduced from 6.63%) damage, and now properly scales with player's haste.

PvP Talents:

(removed) Unholy Mutation - Virulent Plague now erupts for 400% of normal eruption damage when dispelled or it expires. Targets struck by this eruption have their movement speed reduced by 50% for 6 seconds.

(removed) Crypt Fever - Enemies healed while afflicted by your Festering Wounds have a chance to take (16.38% of Attack power) Shadow damage.

Ghoulish Monstrosity - Ghouls summoned by Army of the Dead leap together to form a single ghoulish monstrosity.

Reduces the cooldown of Army of the Dead by for 4 minutes.

(new) Life and Death When targets afflicted by your Festering Wound are healed, you are also healed for 10% of the amount.

In addition, your Virulent Plague now erupts for 400% of normal eruption damage when dispelled.

(new) Necromancer's Bargain - The cooldown of your Apocalypse is reduced by 45 seconds, but your Apocalypse no longer summons ghouls but instead applies Crypt Fever to the target.

Crypt Fever

Deals up to 8% of the targets maximum health in Shadow damage over 4 sec. Healing spells cast on this target will refresh the duration of Crypt Fever.

Necrotic Strike - A vicious strike that deals (30% of Attack power (increased from 16.4424%)) Plague damage and converts 1 Festering Wound into a Necrotic Wound, absorbing up to 8% of the target's maximum health in healing received (changed from “the next (150 / 100 * Attack power) healing received by the target”).

(removed) Pandemic - When you use Outbreak, all enemies within 25 yards afflicted by your diseases take (16.38% of Attack power) Shadow damage and the duration of your diseases on them are refreshed.

(removed) Wandering Plague Outbreak also infects the target with Wandering Plague, causing 16 Shadow damage over 8 seconds. When Wandering Plague's duration ends or is dispelled, it jumps to a nearby enemy within 30 yards afflicted by one of your diseases.
Lasts for 3 jumps.

You can only have one Wandering Plague active at any one time.

(new) Raise Abomination - Raises an Abomination for 25 seconds which wanders and attacks enemies near where it was summoned, applying Festering Wound when it melees targets, and affecting all those nearby with Virulent Plague.

Demonic Origins - The cooldown of Metamorphosis is reduced by 2 min, but now lasts 15 seconds.

(removed) While not in Metamorphosis, your damage is increased by 5%.

(removed) Mana Break - Deals up to 5% of the target's maximum health in Chaos damage.
Damage is increased the lower the target's current mana, up to 25% of the target's maximum health in damage.

(added) Mana Break - Deals up to 5% of the target's maximum health in Chaos damage, and increases the mana cost of their spells by 30% for 10 seconds.

Mana Rift - You manifest a 6-yard wide mana rift under the feet of the target.
After 2.50 seconds (increased from 2 seconds), it erupts dealing up to 8% of each enemy’s (changed from “enemies”) maximum health in Chaos damage and destroys 8% of the each enemy's (changed from “enemies”) total mana if present.

Range changed to 8 yards (from 20 yards)

Vengeance:

Talents:

Spirit Bomb - Consume up to 5 Soul Fragments within 25 yards and then explode, afflicting nearby enemies with Frailty for 20 sec and damaging them for (22.113% of Attack power) Fire per fragment.

During Demonic Trample you are unaffected by snares but cannot cast spells or use your normal attacks. (added) Shares charges with Infernal Strike.

Cooldown changed from 45 seconds cooldown to 20 seconds recharge.

Charges changed from 0 to 2 Charges.

Tormentor - You focus the assault on this target (changed from “Intimidates the”), increasing their damage taken by 3% for 6 sec. Each unique player that attacks the target increases the damage taken by an additional 3%, stacking up to 5 times.
Your melee attacks refresh the duration of Focused Assault (changed from “Intimidated”).

Entire Class Changelist for Patch 8.1 would take too much space so for those wanting to see how it affects class they are playing I recommend visiting official WoW site or Wowhead's comprehensive change log for Patch 8.1 where you can see each class: death knight, demon hunter, druid, hunter, mage, monk, paladin, priest, rogue, shaman, warlock, warrior.

You can also visit their forums to give feedback, ask questions to community or simply join the discussion about said changes!

Next Update

In the upcoming days, specifically 22nd of January we should expect Season 2 which will add Battle of Dazar’Alor Raid, Mythic+ Keystones and Season 2 PvP Arena and probably a lot more.

Armor sets from Battle of Dazar’Alor Raid will be inspired by Bwonsamdi’s armor, just like Uldir’s was similar to Titan armory.

Hearthstone News

For Hearthstone players I have prepared a quick update that arrived on December 19.

This latest patch for Hearthstone’s latest expansion Rastakhan’s Rumble contains only some balance changes for Standard and Wild formats. Citations are taken from official Blizzard site.

Wild Growth - mana cost is 3 (increased from 2 mana)

Nourish - mana cost is 6 (increased from 5 mana)

“Wild Growth and Nourish have been present in every mid-range, combo, and control Druid deck since their introduction in the Basic and Classic set.

When cards from the Basic and Classic set are too powerful, they can have negative long-term effects on the game. Continuously playing against these cards can start to feel repetitive, and they can feel so mandatory that they stifle creative deckbuilding decisions.

By increasing the mana cost of both cards by one, we expect them to be considerations in late-game control Druid decks, but more difficult to fit in strategies that don’t directly take advantage of ramping mana.”

Level Up! - Mana cost is 6 (increased from 5 mana)

“Odd Paladin has consistently been one of the most powerful and most played decks since its introduction in The Witchwood. By removing Level Up from Odd Paladin, we still expect it to be a competitive board control deck, just with more consistent damage output that should be easier to play around.”

“Shudderwock brings an interesting combo to the table, but playing Shudderwock multiple times in a single game can be frustrating.

Changing Saronite Chain Gang makes playing multiple Shudderwocks in a game much more difficult. Shudderwock should now exist as a powerful one-turn effect rather than constantly copying itself with Saronite Chain Gang’s Battlecry.”

“We love the fantasy of building a powerful weapon over the course of a game with Kingsbane, but granting it a permanent Lifesteal effect with Leeching Poison resulted in an endgame with few weaknesses, as well as conflicting with our philosophy that Rogues should not have persistent self-healing effects.

Making the Lifesteal effect only active for one turn should address some of the power level issues with Kingsbane Rogue’s late game.”

That is all for now, if you want to take a more detailed look into the update or if you want to read patch notes I recommend visiting official World of Warcraft site or checking News segment in Battle.Net launcher.